Daarom Grieks en Latijn!

Lampas, vol. 59, pp. 47–72

Abstract

Latin and ancient Greek have lost much of their former appeal and status as school subjects. Hence, teachers increasingly need to explain and defend the presence of these valuable subjects in the school curriculum. In this article, we argue that reception studies are indispensable for this, since they show to what extent Greco-Roman antiquity has been a reference culture for former as well as present-day Western society. The use of Greco-Roman receptions in the classroom also facilitates reflections on the so-called ‘self and other’, the long-defended aim to help pupils reflect on their own culture by means of exposure to the ‘other’ culture of Greco-Roman antiquity. In this article, we show that, in particular, contemporary receptions help pupils to do so. We demonstrate how teachers can integrate receptions from a range of disciplines into their teaching of set texts. We also offer downloadable worksheets and online quizzes for direct use in this year’s exam classes Latin and ancient Greek.

Authors 3

1. Amaranth Feuth Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Universiteit Leiden

2. Ruben Poelstra Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Universiteit Leiden, Utrechts Stedelijk Gymnasium

3. Koen Vacano

   Utrecht University

   Affiliation as printed

   Universiteit Utrecht